KOOL TV CLASSIC IMAGE: 'BATTLESTAR GALACTICA'

The enemy within. The Cylon menace lurks within the cast of the re-imagined BATTLESTAR GALACTICA. Image: NBC UNIVERSAL.

Surely the most highly regarded and critically acclaimed sci-fi series of the last ten years, the re-imagined version of the classic late seventies series BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, originally created by Glen A. Larson, despite early fan protestations and hostility over the series re-vamp (by new imaginator Ronald D. Moore) and certain character changes, would soon capture a loyal and totally devoted fan base worldwide with its high quality scripting, acting and overall series evolution over nearly five years, showing us a realistic, often very bleak, portrayal of a human society out there in the universe destroyed by a menace of their own creation: the evolved android Cylon race, having returned from a period of wilderness isolation and infiltrating the Twelve Colonies of Mankind so as to sneakily bring about its extinction: it's only survivors part of a rag-tag fugitive fleet searching for a fabled planet named Earth, and led by their last mighty Battlestar, Galactica, crewed with a brave, if imperfect group of battle-hardened Colonial Warriors, commanded by the military Moses that is Adama (portrayed with guts, authority and humanity by Edward James Olmos -a superb casting choice for the series).

Battlestar Galactica Openings - YouTube

Despite keeping a lot of the shows original seventies concept, here was something far removed from the lively and fun space opera of GALACTICA that we'd grown up with, but it was equally well made and intriguing in it's own right. This was a show about survival enjoyed by a modern audience that related to its events, frightened but having to get used to terrifying events happening in our own world: like 9/11, the terrorism that has followed, and the wartime occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, and with all the consequences for the world that have followed, alongside intriguing and always developing character drama (both human and the evolutionary Cylons), sexual politics, and some kick-ass space battles and action sequences well utilising the CGI revolution.

If you haven't already watched the new BATTLESTAR GALACTICA on DVD or in re-runs (in the UK it's currently on the SKY ATLANTIC channel), it's well worth a look in. But don't forget the legendary and still terrific original series that inspired it, either...